Does it really work? What other options are there? How do the risks and benefits compare? What about natural treatment options? Options my doctor doesn’t know about? How do I make a decision? How do I prioritize my options? Whom can I trust? Where can I find reliable, unbiased information so I can make intelligent choices?

The Healthcare Advocate Institute is established for you - to be your advocate - to provide answers to these questions.

The problem faced by patients (and healthcare providers) is that there is no professional , independent advocate on the playing field of healthcare. Everyone has their own business interests, their own pet paradigms, treatment approaches they are familiar with or believe in, etc. But who is seeking truth in healthcare? Who is actively investigating different therapies so we can know if we should consider them seriously or not?

Patients go to their regular MD and typically get prescriptions for pills in a rather rushed process. What about addressing the lifestyle causes of their problems? What about non-conventional therapies? What about more natural treatment options? What about less expensive options? Patients usually either hear, “Sorry, I don’t know much about those things,” or, “It’s all a bunch of bologna, don’t have anything to do with that stuff.” Which leaves the patient no better off, and too often more reluctant to be open and honest with their healthcare provider.

On the other hand, supplement sellers are barraging the public, and retired people in particular, with all kinds of hyped claims for their wonder products. It is amazing how much hype they can create while just barely skirting the specific terms and statements that will get them in legal hot water. We want to believe that there are “natural” products that will help us without the problems and side effects of many prescription medications. We want to be able to manage our own healthcare without being so dependent on a system that seems increasingly more interested in itself than us. So how do we know what to believe? What to spend our time and money on? Are we missing something better that could really help us? What about all those testimonials - are they to be trusted?

We need an independent, professional, unbiased organization to actively investigate relatively unknown or unstudied therapies, compare them with other options and more conventional therapies, and make the facts easily understandable. We need an advocate organization to engage the best experts and researchers in seeking truth. We need to be able to get information to healthcare providers that are wanting to be part of making healthcare what it should be. We need to be able to connect the patients, the providers, the researchers, and the media to create a new, open paradigm for how we arrive at healthcare truth, disseminate that information, and apply it to best help people. We need the Healthcare Advocate Institute.